Seriously, funnyman loves Hawaii

Jae-Ha Kim

Actor-comedian Larry Miller is known for his appearances on "Seinfeld," "Mad About You" and the feature film "10 Things I Hate About You." The film inspired an ABC Family television series, beginning its second season, in which he co-stars. Of his travel schedule, Miller, 53, says, "Once you get married and have kids ... if my wife and I get one lone Saturday night free? Believe me, a fire and a drink and holding hands downstairs for 10 minutes is the best getaway possible." Still, he would love to get back to Hawaii one day.

Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?

A: One place I really liked — but isn't glamorous — is Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is close to Norway, Iowa. It doesn't sound exotic, but it was wonderful, very charming and beautiful. Cedar Rapids was like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Q: Where are your favorite weekend getaways?

A: I really liked Shreveport (La.) and New Orleans, as well as visiting rural Georgia and Florida.

Q: What are your favorite hotels?

A: My only rule for hotels is quiet, quiet and quiet! I've been lucky enough to stay in some pretty nice ones, and I think it's difficult to beat the Four Seasons (fourseasons.com) operation. By the way, not many people know this, but the reason they call them "Four Seasons" is that that's how long it takes you to pay for it. Ritz-Carltons (ritzcarlton.com) are great, too, but at a certain point with all these places, you get tired of Queen Anne tables with skinny legs and want a place you can put your feet up. The best hotel I've ever stayed at — no kidding — was a Days Inn (daysinn.com), because it was a brand-new Days Inn. The beds were new, the carpet was new, and the paint was fresh. I was on the road working, and a road hotel just needs to be fancy enough to make you feel like an official grown-up and regular enough to let you put your feet up.

Q: When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?

A: There isn't anything that I must have for my trips. … I travel pretty light. When I'm going to a shoot, they already have my wardrobe. So I usually take jeans, T-shirts and a nice set of clothes if we go somewhere at night.

Q: Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?

A: Like most people in America, I have a list of places that I want to go. I've been planning a trip to Hawaii for the past few years. As you get older the list grows longer. Some of the most astonishing places are right here in the United States.

Q: What is your best or worst vacation memory?

A: Our honeymoon was pretty terrific, because I got to know the hotel manager from a convention show I did there a few months before, and he traded me a free stay for a free show for his employees. This was at a very fancy hotel in Hawaii, on their butler floor, in a three-room suite; so fancy that. Bill Gates and his new wife were booked into the same room as us the following week, right after we left. So once my wife and I found that out, we made sure to, uh, leave no stone unturned in that room, so to speak. By the time we left, every square inch and couch and table and ottoman and relatively soft surface in that room had an intimate knowledge of us, and we of it. I always figured I'd run into Mr. Gates one of these days somewhere, and my goal is to be able to shake hands with him without bursting into 20 minutes of uncontrollable laughter.